Around the time I was born - an era equated by my youngest
descendants with Medieval History, but actually the mid-1920s - Hollywood
produced an epic entitled "The Vanishing American."

It depicted the plight of the Navajo nation, which had conquered the ancient
cliff dwellers, only to be subjugated by our pale faced predecessors, for whom
they were no match in determination and guile.

Thus, they and their Indian brethren forever lost control of their homeland,
today retaining only a few casinos, modest reservations, fading traditions and
occasional gigs in Western flicks.

It may seem a pessimistic comparison, but we here are being herded along a
similar path by leaders with myopic visions, devious motivations and misplaced
priorities.

I cite the fact that I've seen in my fourscore years a deterioration of national
pride, a surrender of world dominance and a squandering of the most massive
inheritance in the history of mankind.

We are now a debtor nation with international IOUs hell-and-gone beyond our
ability to repay and promises (euphemistically billed as entitlements) to our
citizenry which are pies in the skies of an economic Neverland.

In a hole hopelessly over our heads, we are resolutely deepening it and
bequeathing little more than digging skill to our heirs.

Unions, lobbyists and pressure groups have priced our products and producers out
of the world market, piling up trade deficits which would make Jack's beanstalk
look like a blade of crabgrass.

Our Social Security "system," originally designed as an actuarially sound
retirement plan, is actually a busted piggy bank that should be drawn on solely
by those demonstrably in need.

We are at the mercy of desert sheiks and other oil barons, while enormous
sources of power (e.g., shale oil and nuclear energy are two that spring to
mind) lie dormant.

Power politics and modern campaigning have given us, literally, the finest
government that money can buy.

Patriotism has fallen into the same level of rarity as virgin brides and
stirring sermons.

The dispensation of justice has less to do with what's right or wrong than with
who can afford the more clever lawyer.

Customer service via telephone is routinely provided by marginally
understandable Third Worlders with accents you couldn't cut through with a
cutlass.

Fiscal irresponsibility, both individual and organizational, is too often
"punished" by bailouts, earmarks and other governmental largesse, bankrolled by
those who have acted prudently.

The United Nations is a snake pit of world losers, most of whom despise us,
wherein we have earned the distinction of principal patsies.

Objective journalism is submerged in a cesspool of bigoted blather and partisan
prattle in which only occasional whiffs of truth are discernable.

Our elected reprehensibles freely admit voting for legislation involving
billions of our dollars which they haven't even read.

The top 1% of taxpayers, those much-maligned "rich folks," kick in 40% of
federal income taxes, and the top 5% pay a whopping 70%, while nearly half of
all U.S. households pay none.

Unelected "Czars," neither checked nor balanced, are a phenomenon which
short-circuits the power structure of our government.

The "No Godniks," who would use the Constitution and other writings of our
forefathers to abolish recognition of a higher power have obviously read few (if
any) of them.

Under the guises of free speech, privacy rights and international Kumbaya, we
are becoming victims of nations and ideologies which would have us relegated to
footnotery in the annals of world history.

As a tenured denizen of Geezerland, I realize that many of these views are
piddlings against the winds of current public opinion, given that very few of
the people you'll see today had reached the presumed age of reason prior to
World War II.

However, we of long tooth may be shrinking in number, but not in determination
to preserve what we see as precious American values.

As a sop to those who regard the foregoing as calumnious calumny, I offer the
following proposed revision - only slightly whimsical and cynical - of our
Constitution's Preamble:

"We, the sheeple of the Disunited States, in order to deform a nearly perfect
Union, redefine justice, encourage domestic hostility, weaken the national
defence, promote majority welfare and steal the blessings of liberty from
ourselves and our Posterity, do revise and emasculate the Constitution."

Vanquishing Americans are not yet extinct, but barbarians are storming our
gates!

Freelance wordworker Joe Klock, Sr. (joeklock@aol.com) winters in Key Largo and Coral Gables, Florida and summers in New Hampshire. More of his "Klockwork" can be found at www.joeklock.com.